Customer Spotlight Jay Metzler And The Broad Ripple Haverford Little League

Diamond #3: Materials provided by ATS; work done by Joey Stevenson, Indianapolis Indians Grounds Crew.

The Broad Ripple Haverford Little League (BRHLL) started out as many great ideas do: a dream. Founded in 1958, the BRHLL began with a handful of parents, 60 players, 1 diamond and 1 division. Now, it is a league with an army of volunteers (in fact it is an all-volunteer league), over 600 players, over 50 teams, 7 divisions and 10 diamonds. It’s even chartered with Little League International out of Williamsport, PA. How has the BRHLL reached and maintained its level of success? The Director of Maintenance, Jay Metzler, lets us in on the their secrets.

Jay Metzler has been the Director of Maintenance since 2014, has kids in the league himself, and has seen the league through its initial large renovations. 

JJ Metzler and Andy Metzler helping on the fields.	Andy Metzler manning the drag.	Matt Metzler and his friend Jack Hansen, taking water off the field.

He said, “the fields have come a long way since September 2014, when we really started to renovate.” That year, the league fully renovated 3 fields, 2 baseball and 1 softball.

Diamond #1 before the renovation.	Diamond #1 after the renovation.

To start the playing season out right, Metzler organizes the work needing completed into 3 lists. The first list he creates is a list of bigger projects he wants to accomplish for the season, such as renovating a softball field, rebuilding dugouts, and building batting cages.

He calls his second list his field day list. This list complies the tasks needing accomplished to get the fields ready to go after winter. He uses this list to guide him and 35-75 league volunteers on a Saturday “field day.” That day the volunteers help Jay tackle maintenance on the fields to get them ready for play. They do things like clear leaves, fix bleachers, and edge fields.

The final list Jay creates is his day-to-day list. This list assembles all the tasks Jay needs to undertake for routine maintenance. These tasks include, fertilizing, mowing, repairing mounds, repairing home plate, and edging fields.

After Jay has prepared for a successful playing season, he gets to work on making it happen. However, it is not without its challenges. Jay said, “The challenge we always face is the number of fields we have.” He went on to say that having several fields requires a lot of work, and there is just not enough time to accomplish all of it. Games are played 7 days a week on their fields for 8 weeks straight, and staying ahead of routine maintenance is tough.

He does have a “fantastic right hand man,” Ian Kohlhass, who assists him. During the season, Ian and Jay are on the fields 4 out of 7 days each week doing unpaid work in one way or another (rebuilding mound, aerating, fertilizing, mowing, lining fields). Mike Jones, Assistant Vice President – Baseball, and Alan Pyrz, League President, also help keep him on track. “Alan and Mike are our eyes and ears and reach out to us when they see something on the fields that needs taken care of,” Jay said.

However, four people cannot accomplish everything that needs to be done with all the fields. To overcome this, Jay highly recommends a co-op with parents and coaches. He said, “Have them [parents and coaches] learn how to do the maintenance on the field properly to help out. Get the whole league involved and spread knowledge.” With everyone in the league involved with the maintenance, tasks can quickly get done and games won’t be missed.

BRHLL working on the fairgrounds field.	BRHLL working on the fairgrounds field.

Jay and Cory Fisher, Vice President of Softball and co-owner of Fisher Productions, even helped produce videos for the league to help with training parents and volunetters on the dos and don’ts of field maintenance.

Jay also recommends, “finding money and doing it right the first time” to tackle all the construction and maintenance projects that pile up with multiple fields. He suggests acquiring money through donors or car washes and saving it. “If you do it right and get the right people to do bigger projects, like J&D Turf, it makes life easier. Fields will be in better shape and hold up over harsh conditions,” Jay explains. For example, “With our renovation project,” Jay said, “J&D Turf provided the labor and ATS the products, but beyond that both were very gracious with sharing their knowledge and maintenance tips. During wet weather conditions, we went from pulling 50 gallons of rain water off our skin and the field being very soft to pulling off no water and the fields being very playable.” 

Diamond #3 before the J&D Turf renovation.	Diamond #3 after the J&D Turf renovation.

The last thing Jay suggests, for accomplishing field maintenance on multiple fields, is gathering and using the knowledge from “the right people who do the bigger projects.” Jay has taken the advice he has learned from Joey Stevenson, Head Groundskeeper of the Indianapolis Indians, Jamie Mehringer, President of J& D Turf, and Evan Buckley, Sales Representative at Advanced Turf Solutions, and incorporated it into his fields to keep them playable and looking great for the children enjoying the game on them. Players, parents, and coaches alike all compliment the playing conditions of the fields.

With the right preparation, hard work, many volunteers, and sound advice, Jay Metzler and the BRHLL are making dreams for kids come true with every successful playing season. Try out Jay’s secrets of success and see how great your field can become.

If you would like to help support the BRHLL, please visit here.